The Blazers made its deepest penetration into the Christmas tournament to date with an appearance in the finals against the Krazy Squirrels. They may have lost the game 45-25, but the achievement of participating in the finals of this prestigious opening year event will instill confidence that will act as a springboard into a successful regular season.
The Blazers exploded into the tournament with a 96-34 dismantling of the Nimrods. The Blazers were led by Craig Starkey and JD Lister with 26 and 25 points respectively. Jeremy Glass also chipped in 17 points. The Blazers were disappointed to lose their second game of the tournament to the Krazy Squirrels 58-48. AJ Love and Jeremy Glass were the only Blazers in double digits with 13 and 12 points respectively. The Blazers rebounded with a 66-52 victory over Eastside. The Blazers were paced by AJ Love and JD Lister with 22 and 17 points respectively. The Blazers then played an inspired game when they made the Nimrods live up to their name in a 74-33 pounding in this semifinal match. They were led by Jeremy Glass and Josh Dunbar with 22 and 21 points respectively. With a birth into the finals the Blazers were decimated by injuries and were outmanned once again by the Krazy Squirrels in a low scoring 45-25 loss. Jeremy Glass scored 11 points as the only Blazer to score double figures.
JD Lister played all five games and led the Blue Blazers in scoring with 14.2 points per game. The three other players that played in all five games were AJ Love, Josh Dunbar, and captain Jeremy Glass. All four averaged double digit points per game. Craig Starkey averaged 12.7 points over the first 3 games.
When Coach Post was asked about what he could take away from the tournament, Coach Post answered, “I know that we have plenty of room for improvement, but we are a good team and have a good chance to get better and win the league.” Coach Post was then asked what do you think was the hardest obstacle to overcome for this tournament as it relates to your team? Post responded, “We had problems moving the ball around. That really was glaring throughout the whole tournament. Our shot selection was poor. We needed to overcome that in the championship game and we did not. I hope that we can now overcome that.” The final question asked of Coach Post was what will you do differently the next time you meet the Krazy Squirrels? Coach Post eloquently orated the following response, “Well I do not want to give away our game plan, but I plan on running at them. We tried to slow it down and that did not work. The Blue Blazers love to run.”
The first reaction when losing a championship game is obviously disappointment, but this tournament is only a starting point. When this team heals up and can put together its best lineups it will be a force to reckon with come March. Maybe then we can crack open the Krazy Squirrels winter nut storage.
